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Id

In Psychoanalytical theory, the part of the personality which contains our primitive impulses such as sex, anger, and hunger.

Ideal Self

Humanistic term representing the characteristics, behaviors, emotions, and thoughts to which a person aspires.

Illusion

Misperception of reality (e.g., the illusion of a lake in the middle of a desert).

Imagery

Utilizing the mind to create a mental representation of a sensory experience.

Inappropriate Affect

Expressing contradictory behavior when describing or experiencing an emotion (e.g., smiling when discussing something sad; laughing when talking about the death of a loved one).

Independent Samples

Sample data that is independent or not related to each other.

Independent Variable

The variable in an experiment that is manipulated or compared.

Inductive Reasoning

Decision making process in which ideas are processed from the specific to the general.

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

The area or specialty in psychology focused on the application of psychological principles in the work force.

Inferential Statistics

The branch of statistics that focuses on describing in numerical format what might be happening or what might happen (estimation) in the future (probability). Inferential statistics required the testing of only a sample of the population. (Example: 100 students rather than all students).

Inhalant

Substances such as spray paint, freon, and glue that produce an intoxicating effect when inhaled.

Innate

Occurring without learning, inborn.

Insanity

A legal term representing the inability to know right from wrong or the inability to understand the consequences of one’s actions.

Insight

The understanding of a relationship between current thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors and where these originated or how they are maintained.

Instinct

A behavior we are born with and therefore does not need to be learned.